1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for packaging and cooling semiconductors, and in particular to a system and method for cooling semiconductors using direct contact semiconductor ebullient cooling.
2. Description of the Related Art
Processor speeds have increased dramatically over the past several decades. To achieve such speeds, processors are clocked at increasingly higher clock speed and are designed with greater and greater numbers and densities of semiconductor devices. One difficulty with the higher clock rates and higher densities is that the semiconductor chips that make up such processors can generate heat in amounts sufficient to damage the chip itself unless passive or active cooling techniques are employed. Indeed, the rate at which heat can be removed from such semiconductors is a major factor limiting the maximum processing speed of such devices. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the chips are also rather small, and the heat is concentrated in very small areas and can include very high temperatures.
High power amplifier semiconductor chips face similar heat dissipation challenges that limit their power output. The heat must be rapidly transferred from the semiconductor crystal to the semiconductor package and safely away from the semiconductor package via a heatsink or some other heat dissipating device.
Most current semiconductor packages utilize only conduction cooling paths to transfer heat away from the semiconductor device to the package and then to a heat sink or other heat dissipating device. Such cooling techniques do not create the thermal paths with sufficient heat flux to permit the higher clock speeds and higher power demanded of current and projected processor and high power amplifier packages.
What is needed is a cooling apparatus and technique that inexpensively provide very high heat flux thermal paths to dissipate heat from semiconductor environments. The present invention satisfies this need.